KVM represents the core of virtualization technology and is part of the official Linux kernel. According to Navin Thadani, Senior Director, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, (RHEL) 5.4 will, thanks to KVM, be able to accommodate Virtualization Business, Windows and Linux guests. Red Hat will however, continue to provide the current Xen Virtualization while simplifying the migration of its customers to KVM.

A further component in the Red Hat virtualization portfolio is the Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers, which boasts scalability, high availability features and a live migration capability. A Virtualization Manager for desktop PCs with a SPICE / SolidICE base completes the profile.
Also planned is a stateless hypervisor; a minimum Linux system with KVM as host, which Red Hat hopes will attract new customers who have no urge to buy a complete Linux Enterprise server. The first products of the new strategy should hit the markets mid 2009, with the complete portfolio appearing within the next 18 months.

An alliance is forming between virtualization providers Novell and VMware with a strategy for teamwork. At the same time Novell is providing a glimpse of its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) version 11.